by Dilly Court
Lily stole a look at Armand’s face but he met her anxious gaze with a smile. ‘Shall we go in? I can’t wait to see Nell and pay my respects to Monsieur Larkin.’
Lily opened the door and ushered him into the room. Nell was at the table, slicing a loaf of bread, and Aggie was stooped over the fire poking the coals beneath the soot-blackened kettle.
‘Never mind coddling your stomachs with tea,’ Grandpa said, thumping his hand on the arm of his chair. ‘I want a man’s drink with my bread and cheese, and a wally or some pickled onions would go down a treat.’
Nell opened her mouth to reply but on seeing Lily and Armand standing in the doorway she seemed to freeze.
‘Look who has come to see us,’ Lily said nervously.
Grandpa rose from his chair, glaring at Armand through narrowed eyes. ‘If that’s who I think it is, tell him he’s not welcome here.’
‘Grandpa,’ Nell cried, blushing furiously. ‘That’s no way to speak to a guest.’ She dropped the knife and hurried towards Armand, wiping her hands on her apron. ‘This is a pleasant surprise, Monsieur Labrosse.’
Lily could only guess at the self-control that her sister must be exerting to look and sound outwardly calm. ‘I was down by the river, Nell,’ she said hastily, ‘and we bumped into each other.’
Armand took Nell’s hand and raised it to his lips, looking deeply into her eyes. ‘I hope I have not inconvenienced you by arriving unannounced, Miss Nell.’
‘You can just sling your hook, mister,’ Aggie said, hurrying to Nell’s side like a bulldog protecting its mistress. ‘It’s all because of you and your pa that we’re forced to live in this midden.’
‘Aggie, that’s not true, and it was certainly uncalled for,’ Nell said sternly.
‘It has a ring of truth,’ Armand admitted. ‘You must excuse me, Miss Aggie, but I have come to offer my sincere apologies for the way in which my papa behaved. I have come to make amends for the suffering caused by his behaviour.’
‘You don’t know the half of it,’ Aggie muttered with a meaningful glance in Lily’s direction. ‘Your pa should keep his wandering hands to hisself and not go propositioning young girls.’
Nell shooed Aggie out of the way. ‘Perhaps you would like to finish slicing the loaf, Aggie. You are so much better at it than I.’ She turned to Armand with an apologetic smile. ‘You must excuse Aggie. She is very loyal to us, but she had no right to speak to you in that way.’
‘I’d every right,’ Aggie muttered beneath her breath, seizing the bread knife and attacking the loaf as if it were Monsieur Labrosse’s neck on the guillotine. ‘Perishing Frogs.’
‘Hear, hear,’ Grandpa said loudly. ‘You’ve got a lot to make up for, young man.’
‘Armand, you will stay for something to eat?’ Nell said, casting a warning look at her grandfather. ‘Grandpa and Aggie don’t mean to be rude.’
‘I know what I mean to say,’ Grandpa shouted. ‘And I say what I mean. We’re here because Labrosse senior put the hard word on me with the manager of the dock company.’
‘Perhaps I should leave,’ Armand said in a low voice. ‘I don’t want to cause any more upset, Nell.’
Lily laid her hand on his arm. ‘Please don’t go, Armand.’
‘She’s right,’ Nell said hastily. ‘Please stay and share our luncheon. It’s only bread and cheese, but …’
Armand patted Lily’s hand, but his eyes were upon Nell. ‘Bread and cheese would taste like manna from heaven in your company, but I am distressing your esteemed grandpapa and Miss Aggie. This is not what I intended.’ He bowed to Grandpa, clicking his heels together in military fashion. ‘My apologies to you, sir. I came with the best of intentions, and I hope you will allow me to make some reparation for the actions of my papa.’
‘You can’t get my home back for me, so don’t bother,’ Grandpa said sulkily.
‘And you can’t restore a young girl’s faith in old men,’ Aggie added, brandishing the bread knife in a most alarming manner.
Lily met Armand’s anxious gaze with a shrug of her shoulders. ‘It was a misunderstanding between your pa and me – that’s all it was.’
‘I beg you to forgive him. His shame is mine and I would cut off my right arm rather than upset or offend you or any member of your family.’
Grandpa hobbled towards Armand, shaking his fist. ‘Get out of my home. We may have come down in the world but that don’t mean you can come here and gloat over our misfortune. Now get out and don’t come back.’
‘Grandpa, please,’ Nell cried, pale-faced and visibly trembling.
Lily put her arm around her sister’s shoulders. ‘It’s all right, Nell. I’m sure Armand understands.’
‘I will leave right away, Monsieur Larkin,’ Armand said with a stiff bow from the waist. ‘I came only to try to make amends but I see I am not welcome. I beg your forgiveness, sir.’
He left the room abruptly and Nell collapsed in Lily’s arms, sobbing as if her heart would break.
Chapter Ten
Moments later, Matt burst into the living room demanding to know the reason for all the uproar. Nell rushed past him, but when Lily made to follow her he caught her by the arm. ‘What’s going on, Lily? What has happened to upset Nell?’
‘I met Armand purely by chance and he wanted to come here to apologise for his pa’s behaviour. You can ask Grandpa and Aggie what happened next, I’m going after Nell to make sure she’s all right.’ Without giving him a chance to question her further, Lily broke free of him and raced after her sister. She found Nell at the pump in the back yard, splashing cold water on her face.
‘I’m so sorry, Nell. I would never have brought Armand home with me if I’d known what sort of reception he’d receive.’
‘It’s not your fault, Lily. But what Armand must think of us now, I can’t imagine.’
‘It’s so unfair,’ Lily said, shivering as a gust of wind whipped straw and dust into swirling eddies.
‘They didn’t give him a chance.’ Nell’s bottom lip quivered ominously.
‘He’s too fine a man to let them stand between him and the woman he loves,’ Lily said gently. ‘He came back for you, Nell. I’m certain of that.’
Nell was silent for a moment, staring into Lily’s face with a startled look in her eyes. ‘You love him too, don’t you, Lily?’
‘It doesn’t make any difference, Nell. It’s you he wants, I know it. He thinks of Molly and me as his sisters; he said as much.’
‘Oh, Lily, I am so sorry. I keep forgetting that you’re grown up now. I still think of you as my baby sister who must be looked after and protected from the world, but you’re no longer that little girl grieving for her mother. You’re a heroine – Lily in the Flames – that’s what the newspapers called you, and you have feelings for Armand. What are we going to do now?’
‘We’re going to go indoors and carry on as usual,’ Lily said with more certainty than she was feeling. ‘There’s nothing else we can do, Nell. Unless, of course, you feel you ought to go to Bell Wharf where Armand’s ship is being unloaded.’
‘And say what to him? We can’t keep meeting simply to apologise for our relations, and I don’t know how Armand feels about me.’
‘I would have thought that was obvious.’
‘Not to me.’ Nell linked her hand through Lily’s arm with a brave attempt at a smile. ‘Come along, Lily. We’d best go in and soothe a few ruffled feathers. Then there’s the goose to be plucked and taken to the bakery.’
‘But what about Armand?’
‘I doubt if we’ll ever see him again after today. What man would put himself in such an embarrassing situation again?’
Lily squeezed her hand. ‘A man in love, Nell. I’m sure he will return.’
Next morning Lily was awakened by cries of distress. Pushing Molly’s feet away, Lily snapped upright in bed to see Nell standing by the cupboard where they kept their food. In her hands she held the carcase of the goose, stripped of all its flesh.
<
br /> Lily leapt out of bed and padded across the bare boards, brushing her tangled locks back from her face. ‘What happened to that?’
‘Rats!’ Nell said, dropping the bones back onto the plate. ‘They’ve eaten the whole thing. We’ve no Christmas dinner, Lily. How am I going to tell the boys?’
‘What’s all the noise?’ Molly cried, sitting up in bed and yawning widely. ‘Can’t a girl get her beauty sleep?’
‘Merry Christmas,’ Lily said, chuckling as the humour of the situation struck her. She could just imagine the faces of her brothers when the skeleton of the goose was placed before them for their Christmas dinner.
‘I’m glad you think it’s funny,’ Nell said crossly. ‘How am I supposed to feed the family now?’
‘We’ll just have to get pie and pease pudding from the shop in Broad Street. I didn’t fancy cold goose anyway.’ Lily went to kneel by the grate, riddling the grey ashes and sweeping them into a dustpan. ‘I’ll get the fire going, Nell. We’ll feel better after a cup of tea and a slice of toast. That is if the rats haven’t gnawed their way into the bread crock and eaten that too.’
‘Don’t joke about such a thing.’ Nell hurried to the dresser and lifted the lid of the earthenware crock, peering in and uttering a sigh of relief. ‘The bread is all right, thank goodness. You had me worried for a minute.’
‘Shut up and let me go back to sleep,’ Molly moaned. ‘It’s not as if we have anything much to look forward to today.’ She tugged at the rags tied around her hair, pulling them out one at a time. ‘I can remember when we had lots of lovely presents and the sort of food that I can only dream about now.’
‘At least the rats had a good blowout,’ Lily said, crumpling yesterday’s newspaper with her picture on the front page and stuffing it into the grate. ‘We’ll have to make do with tea and meat pie.’
Nell tipped the bare bones into the slop bucket. ‘At least we have food and we have coal for the fire. We won’t starve or freeze to death like some of the poor families who send their children to the Ragged School. And if we have to go without presents this year, then so be it.’
‘If you say we have each other I’ll scream and throw my boots at you,’ Molly said with feeling. ‘I’m going back to sleep but you can wake me when breakfast is ready. I’m going to enjoy my day off from slaving over vats of stinking dye. When I marry my rich gentleman I’m never going to work again.’ She flung herself face down on the pillow.
Lily was quick to note the sad downturn of Nell’s mouth and she could have shaken Molly for her selfish outburst. ‘Don’t take any notice of her, Nell. It’s just Molly being her usual thoughtless self.’
‘It’s time she grew up and realised that there are other people in the world than her,’ Nell said with unusual asperity.
‘I heard that,’ Molly muttered into the pillows. ‘I hate living like this.’
Nell sighed, shaking her head. ‘We all do, Molly, but we’ve just got to make the best of it. Anyway, it’s time the boys were up. They’re on duty this morning and they’ll want a cup of tea before they start their watch.’ She glanced at the truckle bed where a motionless hump beneath the coverlet indicated that Aggie was still sound asleep. ‘Wake her up for me, Lily. I believe Aggie would sleep through anything.’
Later that morning, Nell and Aggie had gone to church leaving Lily and Molly to keep an eye on Grandpa, who had awakened in a crotchety mood made even worse when he discovered that the rats had devoured their Christmas dinner. He had eventually been placated by several cups of hot, sweet tea and slices of toast spread with the scrapings from the butter dish, which left none for Lily who had not yet had time to eat. She made do with a cup of tea and went down into the yard to fetch water, but when she returned minutes later she was faced with an angry Molly who had risen from her bed at last and was strutting around the room wearing her best frock and an angry scowl.
‘Look at this, Lily,’ she grumbled, holding out her skirts to display a brown scorch mark. ‘How many times have I told you to use a cool iron? You’ve ruined my one and only decent gown. Can’t you do anything right?’
Lily set the heavy bucket down on the floor biting back a sharp retort; after all it was Christmas Day. Peace and goodwill to all men – and she supposed that included sisters as well.
‘I could do with a glass of hot toddy,’ Grandpa muttered, eyeing Lily hopefully. ‘A bit of Christmas cheer wouldn’t go amiss, young lady.’
‘Maybe later, Grandpa,’ Lily said automatically. She doubted whether the family finances would run to such luxuries, but she was not going to be the one to dash Grandpa’s hopes.
‘I had a glass of negus at work yesterday,’ Molly said, sitting on the edge of her bed and swinging her legs. ‘Old man Jones was in a festive mood, but it’s a pity he didn’t think to give us extra wages instead of wine and a mince pie. If he had I might have been able to afford a new frock, since this one is only fit for the ragbag.’
‘Ungrateful girl,’ Grandpa said, shaking his finger at her. ‘You’ll come to no good, young Molly. You’re flighty like your ma and look what happened to her.’
‘What did happen to her, Grandpa?’ Molly demanded sweetly. ‘Tell us again.’
‘You know very well what she did, bringing shame on us all. You’re a bad girl to tease an old man.’ Grandpa turned away to stare moodily out of the window. ‘Charlotte Delamare was never good enough for my boy.’
Lily filled the kettle in silence and hung it on the hook over the fire. She did not want to get involved in yet another family dispute. It was obvious that Molly had awakened in one of her moods and was intent on goading Grandpa as a way of enlivening her day. Lily prayed silently for some form of diversion and was surprised and startled when almost immediately the room echoed with the sound of someone knocking on the outer door.
‘A visitor!’ Molly cried, leaping off the bed and racing from the room as if her life depended upon it. She returned moments later clutching a large package wrapped in brown paper and tied with string and sealing wax. ‘It’s for you, Lil,’ she said, thrusting it into Lily’s hands. ‘No one ever sends me presents.’
‘For me?’ Lily stared at the elegant copperplate. It was addressed to her but she did not recognise the handwriting. ‘Who brought this, Molly?’
‘I dunno,’ Molly said, pouting. ‘A boy: I didn’t know him.’
‘I wonder what it is.’
‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Grandpa said testily. ‘Open it for Gawd’s sake and put us out of our misery.’
‘Yes, open it,’ Molly echoed. ‘Maybe it’s a big box of chocolates and we can all share it.’
‘Or a box of cigars.’ Grandpa brightened visibly. ‘I haven’t had a good cigar for – well, I can’t remember the last time.’
Lily untied the string and was patiently peeling off the paper when Molly snatched the parcel from her hands and ripped it open, revealing a highly polished wooden box with a brass catch and a leather handle. She thrust it back at Lily. ‘Hang it – it’s not chocolates.’
Lily’s fingers trembled as she lifted the catch. She opened it, letting out a gasp of delight and then closing it again with a snap.
‘Well, girl, don’t keep us in suspense,’ Grandpa said, leaning forward in his chair. ‘What is it?’
‘Just a box,’ Lily said hastily. ‘Nothing very interesting; in fact I think there must be some mistake.’
Molly angled her head, eyeing Lily suspiciously. ‘Is that what I think it is?’
Lily frowned. ‘It’s a box for keeping things in. If I can find a return address on the paper you tore up I’ll send it back directly.’
Molly leaned closer, whispering in Lily’s ear. ‘It’s a paintbox, isn’t it? Who do you think sent you that? I think I can guess.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘You can’t fool me, miss. It was from that artist bloke, wasn’t it? I found his card amongst your things when I was looking for a hair ribbo
n.’
‘You shouldn’t have been snooping, you wretch.’
Molly smiled triumphantly. ‘You’ve got a gentleman friend, you sly cat. Well, I don’t care because that means you can have him and I can have Armand. I’ll keep your secret, Lil, if you promise to leave Armand to me.’
‘What are you two whispering about?’ Grandpa demanded. ‘It’s very rude. Speak up if you’ve something to say.’
Molly skipped across the floor to drop a kiss on his forehead. ‘We were just saying that Matt ought to treat you to a jug of hot toddy. It is Christmas Day after all and the blooming rats have eaten our dinner, so I think we all deserve a treat. I think I’ll go down to the fire station now and put it to him.’
‘Good girl, Molly,’ Grandpa said, patting her on the shoulder. ‘Thank God you don’t take after your mother in every way. She was a selfish piece; never gave a thought to anyone other than herself.’ As Molly made a move towards the door, he called her back. ‘And tell Matt if I can’t have hot toddy, I’ll make do with mulled wine so long as they put plenty of brandy in it. Off you go, missy.’
With Grandpa sinking into a reverie with a rapt look on his face, which Lily could only assume was in anticipation of an alcoholic treat, she went to sit on her bed and opened the box once again to inspect the contents. It was twice the size of her old paintbox and contained several rows of china pans filled with solid pigment. She took out a small glass bottle that was obviously intended to hold water, marvelling at the craftsmanship that enabled her to slip it back in its snug compartment. Next to it was a china palette for mixing the colours and lying in a slot at the front of the box were six watercolour brushes of varying sizes. Their bristles were made of sable and so soft that she hardly felt them when brushed against her cheek; it was a wonderful present but it would have cost a small fortune. It would tear her apart to give it up, but she knew that she ought not to accept such an expensive gift. She would have to return it to Gabriel.
